varicocele microsurgery...are IR serving as substitute??

[ThinkTooMuch]

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so im interested in male reproductive care especially on conditions that affect the testes. and im trying to found out what specialty would have the most opportunities for intervention, 5-10 years from now. for example, take varicocele correction. its still mainly done via surgery, but interventional radiologist are doing more and more embolizations which are much less invasive, cheaper and have similar success rates.

 

[bobbyseal]

Varicocele correction is best performed via an operating microscope. It leads to the best long term results with lowest risk of hyrdocele and recurrence.

Having IR embolize the gonadal vein is way more expensive than having a surgeon perform a varicocelectomy.

The incision made is about 3cm. Not exactly highly invasive.

 

[Marsupilami]

Microsurgical subinguinal varicocelectomy is superior to other procedures according to most studies. If you're interested in andrology/male fertility, it doesn't make any sense at all to go the IR route. Plus, there are other surgical procedures in the fertility field.